JUNE 2019
CENTRAL TEXAS
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US church leaders ready to implement new norms By Carol Zimmermann | Catholic News Service
U.S. church leaders welcomed the norms issued by Pope Francis May 9 giving clear direction to the global Catholic Church about reporting abuse and holding church leaders accountable, saying it confirms what they already have in place and also gives them a way forward. The document — which among other things, requires all Catholic priests and women religious to report sexual abuse by clergy and church leaders and provides whistleblower protection for those making allegations — was described as a “blessing that will empower the church everywhere to bring predators to justice,” said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Other bishops echoed his sentiment, issuing statements and speaking out on Twitter about their gratitude for the pope’s action. Several said the norms directly address needed improvements to the church’s response to abuse by requiring all dioceses around the globe to establish a public, accessible and reliable system for reporting
crimes of clergy sexual abuse and any cover up of abuse within one year. In a statement, Bishop Joe Vásquez thanked Pope Francis for promulgating the mandate. “Pope Francis clearly articulates a sincere desire for complete and true progress in the protection of all God’s people. I join the Holy Father in remaining committed to ending all forms of abuse in our church and in our society. The Diocese of Austin continues to work to ensure that no one is harmed by its clergy or lay ministers, striving to bring about God’s goodness in our midst. Please join me in praying for all victims of abuse, that God will give them the strength to heal and find peace,” Bishop Vásquez said. New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan described the norms as a sign of the pope’s “desire to institute reform, promote healing, and insure justice” and said they were a “much-needed and tremendously important step forward for the church universal.” For U.S. church leaders, the pope’s willingness to hold bishops as well as priests accountable was important in light of their own efforts this past year. They have been dealing with the fallout associated with the release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report last summer detailing hundreds of allega-
NORMS Continued from Page 1
will be accountable not just for protecting minors against abuse but also for protecting seminarians, novices and members of religious orders from violence and sexual abuse stemming from an abuse of power. The norms apply to reports of “delicts against the sixth commandment” regarding clerics or members of religious orders and “forcing someone, by violence or threat or through abuse of authority, to perform or submit to sexual acts.” • Those who report abuse cannot be subjected to pressure, retaliation and discrimination or told to keep silent. The seal of confession, however, remains inviolable and is not affected by the new norms. • Procedures for carrying out the preliminary investigation include the bishop immediately requesting from the Vatican that he or a delegate be assigned to begin the preliminary investigation. If he considers an accu-
sation is unfounded, the papal nuncio is informed. The Vatican will have 30 days to respond to the request and the bishop sends a status report to the Vatican every 30 days. • When the investigation is complete, the bishop sends the results to the proper Vatican office, which then follows existing canon law. • The continued obligation to respect civil laws regarding mandatory reporting. • Those who reported suspected abuse or cover-up will be told of the outcome of the investigation, if they request to be informed. • A fund can be set up by bishops’ conferences, synods and church provinces to cover the costs of investigations. The document is a follow-up to Pope Francis’ 2016 document, “As a Loving Mother,” on transparency and accountability of bishops and religious superiors.
tions of abuse over a 70-year period and the defrocking of one of their own earlier this year: Theodore McCarrick, a former cardinal and retired archbishop of Washington, in the wake of credible abuse allegations. Last fall, U.S. bishops planned to vote on their response to the clergy sex abuse crisis during their general assembly in Baltimore, but they didn’t do so at the urging of the Vatican, which asked them to wait until after the February summit on clergy abuse with the pope and presidents of the bishops’ conferences around the world. Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley said the pope’s document, “Vos estis lux mundi” (“You are the light of the world”) was a fulfillment of Pope Francis’ pledge at the Vatican’s February summit on protection of minors to provide “concrete measures” to respond to the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the church. At the end of the February meeting, the Vatican promised to provide direction for how bishops and religious superiors should handle abuse allegations and how they should prepare the relevant documents for the doctrinal congregation when an accusation is found to be credible. Now that the global church has the required steps they need to follow in front of them in terms of abuse response, U.S. church leaders are determined to discuss their implementation of the norms at their upcoming June meeting in Baltimore. Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich said in a May 9 statement that the new rule “validates many of the procedures already in place in the Archdiocese of Chicago and in the United States” but it also “provides a framework for the bishops in this country to adopt measures at our June meeting that will both implement the pope’s executive order and address the issue of holding everyone in the church accountable.” The U.S. bishops have a boilerplate to begin further work in response to the abuse crisis, but they also know from the pope’s document that they are hardly alone in directly confronting this problem. Susan Reynolds, assistant professor of Catholic Studies at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, said the norms “offer a global response to a global crisis,” noting one of the challenges of February’s Vatican
summit on abuse was that, for years “clergy sexual abuse has been erroneously regarded by many in the church as a Western problem” with church leaders in many parts of the world saying clergy sexual abuse was “simply not occurring in their countries or regions.” Reynolds said some church leaders right up to and during the Vatican summit were suggesting the “development of universal guidelines on abuse reporting would be impossible because of global cultural differences.” But now, these new guidelines from the pope on the heels of the February meeting, shows the pope “acting decisively to address abuse on a global scale. This is a major stride,” she said. Kurt Martens, a canon law professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington, similarly noted the global nature of the pope’s action saying in a May 9 Twitter thread that the “universal law shows that the abuse crisis is not simply an American problem but concerns the whole church.” “We are finally moving from darkness into light on a world scale,” he added. Martens also said the law, along with the companion March 26 Vatican law stipulating jail time for any public official of the Vatican who fails to report abuse, “sets an unmistakable new course. Voices of the victims are heard; there is no turning back now.” He also said the law means the church, in the U.S. as well as the world, has to get to work. “We cannot rest. We must embrace and implement,” this document, he said, adding that the pope reminds Catholic leaders that they should not “merely treat this as technical positive law, but this must be accompanied by a full ecclesial spirit, common purpose and conversion.” Amid the praise for the pope’s document, given “motu proprio,” (on the pope’s own initiative), some have said further steps need to be taken. Kim Smolik, CEO of Leadership Roundtable, said she welcomed the pope’s action for going “further than any previous church laws in its scope of accountability and its global reach” but she said the document doesn’t “address the breadth of culture change necessary to address the root causes of the crises of abuse and leadership failures.”